


Trigger Happy

by ladderax (allnuthatchforest)



Series: Trapper Keeper Series [2]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Birthday Party, Childhood Friends, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-16
Updated: 2012-07-16
Packaged: 2017-11-10 02:20:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/461195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allnuthatchforest/pseuds/ladderax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur tries to get through Eames's laser tag birthday party--without talking to Eames. It's harder than he thinks. Set a few months after <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/461192">Hey, Jerkbutt</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trigger Happy

**Author's Note:**

> Written in summer of 2011.

When Arthur showed up at the birthday party, he was tempted to turn around, tell his mom he wasn't feeling well and ask if he could go home. Even from a distance, he didn't recognize most of the kids there. Some of them looked a lot older and taller. He didn't see Eames anywhere.

A young woman with a clipboard greeted him at the door. He'd never seen anyone with a clipboard at a birthday party before. "Hi!" she said brightly, bending down to Arthur's level. "What's your name, hon?"

"I'm Arthur," he said. She scanned down her list, checked his name off, and handed him a nametag that said ARTHUR. He fumbled with the backing, peeled it off and stuck it to his shirt.

The woman, who introduced herself as Natalie, led Arthur around to the back. Arthur had never seen such a big backyard before. It currently held a canopy, under which there was a huge table with a lot of food on it; a big group of adults was standing around it, spooning food onto paper plates. The property was covered with giant gray rocks, which were, on closer inspection, made of spray-painted foam.

"Everyone, this is Arthur!" Arthur was led to another tent where he was greeted by twenty or so cold, staring, unfamiliar faces. There was no one from his school, which surprised him. A couple of the kids looked to be at least twelve. It took him a second to recognize Eames, who was wearing a long-sleeved navy blue Izod polo shirt and had his hair neatly combed and parted on the side. After what had happened last week, he was afraid to look at Eames, and stared instead at the other kids' sneakers. Some of the kids started whispering, and Arthur wondered if they were talking about him.

There was another young woman with a clipboard in the tent. "OK, who wants to play laser tag?" she called. The kids' eyes brightened as she explained the rules and demonstrated the use of the phasers and sensor vests. If you were hit eight times, you were out. "Since Jonathan's the birthday boy, we'll let him pick the twelve people he wants on his team," she said.

Arthur knew Eames wasn't going to pick him, and he was right.

Eames glared at him as he was fitted with his sensor vest. One of the bigger kids on his team gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder as he walked by, and Arthur wondered if Eames had invited him just to make him pay for what Arthur did to him after the zoo trip. He tried his best to look sorry, but Eames just fingered his trigger and turned away.

Each team, Red and Blue, started on their "base camp" at opposite ends of the yard. Everything was blurry at that distance, but Arthur could make out Eames and his new best friend, apparently sharing a joke. The other kids on his team seemed to be friendly. Two of the girls near him were talking about how cute Bret Michaels was and bragging that both their parents had let them see Die Hard. He looked at the girl next to him, wondering if she might be an ally, but she was crouching, white-knuckling the phaser, just waiting for the whistle to blow so she could start shooting people.

The whistle blew. Arthur felt his vest buzz, and realized that one of his teammates had shot him in the back.

"You're not supposed to do that, you moron!" he shouted.

"I don't care! You suck!" the white-knuckle girl cried, rushing on towards the other side of the field.

Arthur had a strategy planned out, but he didn't know if it would work yet. While the other team was mostly still in the middle of the field, he went up to one of the giant foam rocks and gripped it. He could get a decent handhold on the material, he thought. It would work for climbing.

Sure that there was no one behind him, he climbed up and pulled himself up on top of the rock. He could lay flat on top of it, and no one could shoot him because his front sensor was pressed to the rock and his back sensor was facing the air. I'm so smart, he thought. He kept his phaser at the ready and shot one, two, three kids, who seemed to have no idea what hit them--he crouched into the foam when they turned around, and they couldn't see him.

He could see Eames hiding behind another of the rocks, shooting two kids in a row. Groups were ganging up on the slow runners, and already a few of them were marching back to base camp. One boy was crying and had to be led to the tent with the adults.

Eames was fast and he had good reflexes. Arthur thought he'd probably be really good at Street Fighter, if Arthur ever got the chance to play with him. But he might not ever get the chance.

"Hey. That's cheating," said a voice behind him. Arthur turned himself around as best he could to face two kids, Eames's large friend and another older boy with curly red hair. "Get your nerdy ass down here so we can beat you fairly."

Arthur had no idea what to do.

"It's not against the rules," he squeaked.

"You're a coward," the red-haired kid accused.

"No he's not," said another, familiar voice. "He's pretty tough. You're just jealous 'cause he's smarter than you are. Nobody ever said we couldn't do that."

"Why are you defending him, Jon? I thought you hated him," Eames' hulking friend whined.

"Yeah, I dunno," Eames said, shrugging. "He's OK."

Arthur smiled and climbed down. As he descended, he was shot in the back by Curly and Hulk. He got in a couple of good shots at them, and since he was a little faster he managed to evade them. As he was running, he saw the girl who had shot him in the back, and he gave her the finger.

Eames, he noticed, was jogging beside him.

"You know we're not on the same team, right?" he said, looking confusedly at Eames.

"Oh yeah. Of course I do." He pointed his phaser at Arthur and fired.

Arthur was fast, but Eames was faster. While the young woman who was in charge of laser tag was busy prying apart two kids who were shoving clumps of dirt in each others' faces, Eames slipped between the dense trees that edged his family's property. Arthur followed him, and as Eames began to lose speed because of the uneven terrain and the obstacles the trees presented, Arthur was able to aim and press the trigger. The phaser didn't fire.

"It doesn't work out here," Arthur said.

"I know. Just come here a second?"

Arthur approached him slowly. Eames looked wary, but he didn't seem like he was ready to punch Arthur in the gut.

"Why haven't you talked to me for the past two weeks?" Eames asked. "I thought you were my friend. And I don't like many people."

Arthur swallowed. "I don't know." He looked down at the strips of sunlight on the forest floor, at the insects he didn't know the names of skittering across dry leaves.

"Was it because Mitchell called us gay boyfriends?"

Well, yeah. It was. Arthur nodded slowly, reluctantly.

"You were embarrassed too." Arthur rejoined.

"Yeah, a little bit," admitted Eames. "But why would you listen to him? He's gross. I bet half his weight is skid marks."

Arthur laughed. No one could beat Eames at bathroom humor. It was one of the things Arthur liked about him.

"I like you, Eames," Arthur said. "Not like that, don't worry. But--you're cool. I think sometimes I might even like you better than Dom." He felt guilty for admitting that, but it was true. "Why didn't you invite him or anyone else from school, anyway,"

Eames leaned against a birch, peeling off a long curl of bark. "My parents said I could only invite one person from school. It's 'cause they had to invite the kids of people they work with. I don't know why."

"That's kind of weird," said Arthur. "I get to invite whoever I want to my birthday party." 

Eames looked up at him shyly. "Are you gonna invite me?"

Arthur smiled. Seeing Eames smile made him smile more, for some reason. "Of course. You know, you can even come over before then, if you want. I have Street Fighter," he offered.

"Oh, I have Street Fighter too," Eames began. Arthur frowned. "Oh. Yeah. That would be fun." 

The young woman was calling their names. 

"My cake has Donatello on it," Eames said, swinging his arms as he walked into the sunlight.

"Oh yeah, 'cause he's your favorite too," Arthur said, stepping on Eames' shadow. 

"Nope." Eames looked behind him. "My favorite's Raphael."


End file.
